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Politico's Jonathan Martin brings us news of how hectic the election season is getting in Florida. Campaign signs are being stolen -- by actual candidates! And other candidates are dispatching people to sit by themselves in the woods at night to catch them with infrared cameras.

Here's the back story: Greg Brown and Doug Broxson are both vying for the GOP nomination for the State House of Representatives, serving Florida's District 1. Jason Broxson, son of Doug, put up some campaign signs on the side of the road. He then trained a camera on the signs and went to hide in the bushes. At least someone in District 1 had something fun planned that evening!

Lo and behold, who should arrive on the scene but Greg Brown and his wife, who immediately began pulling up signs and taking them away. Jason Broxson got it all on tape, and now the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation.

When asked about this by reporters, Greg Brown basically said, "What, no big deal!"

When contacted by phone Monday afternoon, Greg Brown said he and his wife did nothing wrong by removing Broxson's signs from property owned by a Brown campaign supporter.

He said he saw his opponent's signs on a vacant lot owned by Don Dewrell, 69, of Holt after leaving a political rally in Jay on Saturday night. He said he and Dewrell previously agreed that he'd be the only District 1 candidate allowed to put signs on the property.

See! Brown was totally in the right, except he sure acted like he was doing something he knew to be wrong. As he and his wife removed the signs, they voiced concerns over the possibility that they would be spotted by passersby or leave "fingerprints" behind. (I guess the local C.S.I. would have gotten involved in this?)


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On the Death of the Climate Bill

David Roberts Grist Magazine

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has officially announced that there will be no climate bill this year. But Jon's post doesn't fully convey the extent of the capitulation. What's happened is total and complete surrender. There's no silver lining in this cloud.

climate bill dead on arrivalNot only will the bill not contain any restrictions on greenhouse gases -- not even a watered-down utility-only cap -- it won't even contain the two other key policies that would have moved clean energy forward: the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) and the energy efficiency standards.

Basically, Reid canvassed his caucus and figured out what they could pay for (without a carbon price for funding) and what already had 60 votes. This is it:

  • Some response to the Gulf oil spill, in the form of tighter restrictions on offshore drilling.
  • Some pork for natural gas vehicles. (T-Boone gets his money.)
  • Home Star.
  • Some money for land and water conservation. (Baucus demanded $5 billion for this, leaving other, much more worthy clean energy programs begging.)

Home Star is good, but as an energy bill? This is f*cking pathetic. It's little better than what the Republican Congress produced under George Bush.

I'm running around at Netroots Nation right now, so I don't have a lot of time, but just a few quick notes.

Blame where it is due: I'm frustrated with Obama's passivity on this issue. I'm frustrated with Reid. I'm frustrated with the environmental movement. But we should be clear about where the bulk of the responsibility for this farce ultimately lies: the Republican Party and a handful of "centrist" Democrats in the Senate. They are the ones who refused to vote for a bill, no matter how many compromises were made, no matter how clear the urgency of the problem. They are moral cowards, condemning their own children and grandchildren to suffering to serve their own narrow electoral interests. There isn't enough contempt in the world for them. So when the anger and recrimination get going -- as they already are -- let's at least try to keep the focus on the real malefactors. More...


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Bipartisan group of senators propose plan for post oil spill recovery along Gulf coast

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an effort to help individuals and small businesses along the Gulf coast, a bipartisan group of six lawmakers have put together a package of tax breaks for those hit hard by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

The bipartisan nature of the group – six senators coming from across the political aisle and across the Gulf - sends a strong signal to congressional leadership that there is broad support for such a measure, which is a rarity in Washington these days but something necessary for any legislation to pass.  The senators’ proposal, spearheaded by Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Roger Wicker (R-MS), is similar in aim to one offered just yesterday in the House by U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Chumuckla, Fla.   
           The House plan would offer assistance mainly to property owners, while the senators would target job creation through tax incentives to employers and for tourism. More...


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Bulls Bears Donkeys and Elephants

From the New York Times – September 2008 by Tommy McCall

Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.


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Alan Grayson Lays the Blame Where it Belongs – At the Feet of the Right Wing

From Huffington Post – Arthur Delaney

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said on the House floor Monday that Republicans are blocking a reauthorization of unemployment benefits in order to resurrect the America of the 1930s.

"There was no unemployment insurance back then," Grayson said, in one of the more colorful speeches on the issue. "There was no State benefits back then. There was no help for the people who had no jobs. All they could do, like my grandfather, in desperate straits, supporting a family of seven, was to go to the dump and desperately try to find something he could sell.

"That, my friends, is the America that the Republicans are trying to revive. The America of desperate straits, and for them cheap labor. The America where people have nothing, hope for nothing, and are desperate to live to the next day. That is what the Republicans are trying to resurrect by blocking unemployment insurance day after day, week after week, and now month after month."

More than 2.5 million people who've been out of work for longer than six months have stopped receiving federally-funded extended benefits since the end of May, when Congress failed to reauthorize the benefits. Republicans in the Senate, joined by Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, have filibustered the bill because they don't want its $33 billion cost added to the deficit (even though that is the usual way with federal extended benefits). More...


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geithner-war-councilThe Real Reason Timothy Geithner is afraid of Elizabeth Warren

John Talbot – Huffington Post

Snip - The banks have made no secret as to where they will find this increase in cash flow. They intend to soak their small retail customers, their consumer and small business borrowers, their credit card holders and their small depositors with increased costs and fees and are continuing many of the bad mortgage practices that led to the crisis (ARM's, option pay deals, zero down payments, second mortgages, teaser rates, etc)

As reported on HuffPost last week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed opposition to the possible nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a source with knowledge of Geithner's views.

One can assume that Geithner, being very close to the nation's biggest banks, is concerned that Warren, if chosen, will exercise her new policing and enforcement powers to restrict those abusive practices at our commercial banks that have been harmful to consumers and depositors.

Certainly, Warren is not the commercial banking industry's first pick to serve in this new role. And unlike other legislation in which an industry's lobbying effort would naturally slow or cease once the legislation is passed, the new financial reform bill is continuing to attract enormous lobbying action from the banks. The reason is simple. The bill has been written to put a great deal of power as to how strongly it is implemented in the hands of its regulators, some of which remain to be chosen. The bank lobby will work incredibly hard to see that Warren, the person most responsible for initiating and fighting for the idea of a consumer financial protection group, is denied the opportunity to head it. More...


Posted in: Corruption , Bankster , News and Politics , Opinion  Tags:

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